On Black Friday, I took my nieces and nephew to my local comic book store to get some Christmas shopping out of the way. I just go straight to the back issue section now. My nieces and nephew got manga and tabletop games. I can remember years back when pretty much all that was sold was comic books, and the new issues took up a lot of space because people were buying them/had subscriptions. Now the new issue section is tiny and most comics that are sold there are from the back issue section (to the point that sometimes they have to put a time limit on that section due to the demand). The increase in women coming to the store happened when they started selling manga which was a wise choice.
I guess every time I go now, it just irritates me because I think of how the comic book industry has been decimated due to rabid feminists, obsession with DEI, and totally ignoring who actually buys comics. I guess you could add that they could've capitalized on the success of the MCU. After the Marvels bombed Forbes had an article taking issue with someone who said it was for teen girls and not comic book fans and they said something like "as if those two groups aren't the same".
Imagine if someone had told the execs that women don't buy this product in large numbers so exclusively catering to this audience is a losing proposition. I also remember an interview with Kathleen Kennedy saying she gets a lot of calls from male directors wanting to work with Star Wars but few women. A good interviewer would've told her "who do you think is mostly interested in Star Wars".
Finally, one of the most annoying things in "nerdy hobbies" is a feminist saying she never felt welcomed in a comic book store, or in a video game store. I don't know how many times my friends and I would roll out the red carpet when a girl came into the comic book store or how awesome I thought it was as a teen when I met a girl who was into games.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. On the bright side, I got some back issue comics and my niece got me a manga for an early Christmas gift. Alice in Borderland.
Also with Manga if I want to start Attack on Titan, it’s all in the volumes. Like you said someone new to comics would have a hard time to start. I have been getting into 80s indie comics. But there were problems before feminists invaded. I guess the annoyance is that dc and marvel took them seriously and hired them
I speak from experience on that front. I knew how DC and Marvel were set up so when I took the plunge into comic books I just skipped over those two publishers entirely and went straight for stuff where I could pick up Volume 1 and finish on Volume 8. It was exactly what I was after and Marvel and DC simply do not provide that experience at all. They don't even try.
That makes no sense. I know where to look for certain characters but that’s only after years of reading but it would be nice to have a massive omnibus. Any indies you can recommend? I you haven’t read them already check out Alien Worlds. It was like a 12 comic series of sci-fi anthologies from Pacific/Eclipse comics
I'm digital only my man, I'll put it on my list but a brief glance says I'm gonna have to sail the high seas to find that one.
As for good comics outside of DC and Marvel, off the top of my head I'd point you to Princess Ugg which was only two volumes, uncompleted but a thoroughly enjoyable romp about a barbarian princess going to princess school. It sounds dumb on the surface now that I type it out but it was one of the comics I enjoyed the most when I first got in and the writer has a few other good works under his belt.
Bomb Queen is a super villain comic done right in my opinion. Less monologuing and more conniving and winning with all of the fan service. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for some humor and to see the villain as the protagonist of the story.
Death Vigil. Humorous tale about the grim reaper recruiting dead people to fight off occultists and the like. Basically a western take on Bleach I guess? It's really the good writing that sells it for me. The same author also did Sunstone which was a surprisingly good story despite the theme of it basically being about BDSM. Between the two I'd point you towards Death Vigil though.
Freak Angels - A tale of what happens after a bunch of super powered kids flood the world Noah's Ark style. It's just some really interesting world building that hooked me. Might not be for everyone but it had that element of "I want to learn what happened here" that exists in all the best sci-fi and horror media.
A couple others that I can't be bothered typing up full descriptions for but that you should at least glance over to see if they catch your interest:
Thanks! I have some Bomb Queen issues as well as the first few of Saga. I’ll check out the rest. I used to want to see a Saga tv show or movie but not anymore